We're now in the Galapagos.
While waiting for Sean and Norman in Panama, we had quite a nice time. While not as inexpensive as Colon, Panama City is still inexpensive by U.S. standards and quite a nice city--safe, fairly clean, etc. There are several casinos, and, for once, I did a little damage and returned some money to the cruising kitty. Our agent was a bit like David Jones, our late weatherman from the BVI and took good care of us. We arrived about 4 PM and he came out and had several rum and cokes. It was particularly important as Sean and Norman had a bit of a problem with immigration at the airport. It seems, in spite of what we were all told, that South Africans need a visa for Panama, and there was quite a hold up until the agent sent someone out there to straighten it out. As a result the boys didn't get to the boat until about 11PM on the 27th. Of course, we then had to have a few beers. We were hoping to leave the next day at about 10, but again, we had a holdup from immigration. Anyway, we finally got fueled up and out of there about 1 PM on Sat. 5/28 for the 1,000 miles to the Galapagos.
We left in calm seas, light rain and light wind as well. While I'm thankful to be carrying extra fuel, this is a sailboat, and I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever get to really sail. The Gulf of Panama is quite large, and one heads almost due south to get through the doldrums, before heading west. For the first few days we motorsailed, but after leaving the Gulf, the waves kicked up and it was like heading to St Martin. After about 3 days, one of the tramps came loose, but we were able to save it and tie it down. Thanks, Joe and Norman. The rest of us were chicken to go forward! So much for the new open tramps that were supposed to handle heavy seas with no problem. When we repair them later I'm going to revise the attachment system so, hopefully we won't have another problem. We crossed the equator at about 11:30PM on Thursday, and had a bit of a ceremony for Joey and Rose who had not done so previously. A speech from King Neptune (yours truly) was followed by a spaghetti shower for the swabs. Quite amusing and the pics are rather humorous. The last 2 or 3 days, the seas calmed, we had proper winds and actually had a beautiful sail, arriving here at about 6 AM on Monday.
Before we left, the boys bought a few lures and they were hot. We almost immediately caught a couple of 7-8 lb Spanish Mackerel. Unfortunately, we also hooked some really big stuff, and lost the hot lures. We did get a marlin, but he ran out the line before breaking it and was walking on his tail while trying to throw to hook . We figure it was at least 300 lbs, but it all happened too fast for pics. After that we kept a few lines in the water but had no luck. Hope the fishing is better on the next leg, as we are expecting to get some tuna, wahoo and dorado.
Our (Joey, Rose and Tim) attempts to quit smoking were somewhat futile, although we supposedly left with no smokes. After about 4 days, Rose was a closet basket case, and when I remembered I thought I had left a pack of Camels in the freezer (left over from the Cat Fight which I couldn't find) she, in a frenzy, unpacked the whole thing and found them. Well, that was the beginning of the end! The other two bitched about unfiltered cigs, but sucked them down in a nanosecond. Then, lo and behold, Joey comes clean that he's got a pack. It was all over, but, shortly, so were the cigarettes. That's not all though. Just before dark on Thursday, a boat started heading over to us. A Frenchman, we later found out was named Jean Claude, who's autopilot had crapped out wanted to follow us in. As he passed by, a joint plea for cigs was heard from Rendezvous, and, of course, being a Frenchman, he smoked, and threw us a new pack of Marbies. That got us into port and then we were able to buy some, much to the consternation of my surrogate father, Norman, who ragged us all week about it. The "new"plan is to leave for the Marqueses with no smokes---really, and cure ourselves in that 3 week leg.
On arrival in the Galapagos, we cleaned up the boat a bit and went ashore about 9 to check in. There are varying stories in the guides about costs, how long one can stay, etc. We found the Port captain to be very nice and he, without prompting, gave us the maximum 20 days (although we only plan to stay 10). I had to go back Monday to pay them, and they didn't even charge us the $100/person Nat'l Parks fee--a real win. Immigration was equally friendly and relatively quick--$30 there for fees. Rose and I are still amazed after being abused in the BVI, when these gov't officials are all so friendly and welcoming, especially here where things are quite restricted. The only disappointment is, contrary to the guides, they won't let us take the boat over to Puerto Ayora, where my mail was supposed to be waiting. Unfortunately, it was a short and cheap ferry ride over there, but you had to spend the night. Fortunately, apparently FedEx comes here first, and when I got around to checking, the mail was actually here. Even the FedEx guys were nice.
Food and booze are as cheap as Colon, with a giant 1/2+ liter bottle of local beer going for about $1.50, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings about $5.00. Surprising since these are Islands out in the middle of nowhere. Fuel, delivered to the boat and put in my tanks was only $1.40/gallon and saved us a huge hassle of toting jerry jugs around, etc. I saw the price on land was about $1.05. Saturday, we took an island tour----sort of. Most people here do not have a solid command of the English language, and our driver had none. It was also a bit chilly and overcast. After we saw the giant turtles and did a cerveza stop, we hung it up and returned to town which was going crazy as Ecuador had just beaten Argentina in soccer. We're planning on another small tour to go see the marine iguanas somewhere.
Other than that, we have availed ourselves of the local hospitality. It's so cheap to eat out, we've done quite a bit of that, and there are some good bars and bakeries. Obviously with the boys from SA on board, there have many beers and cocktails consumed starting first thing, so our livers will need a rest on the way to the Marqueses. Our days have been spent exploring the town, reprovisioning (some of which is also brought to the boat for us), laundry and repairs like the tramps. Unfortunately, we still have some leaky hatches which we think we've narrowed down to the caulking. It's a big job, but we can't get 5200 here anyway, so we've simply slathered silicon around the seams and will pray that works until we can do a proper job. The internet cafes have slow connections, but we finally managed to get Joey enrolled in the university distance learning program. Unfortunately, that is too late to get any course materials here, so he'll have another 3 week reprieve.
Left the Galapagos Saturday morning (6/11), and had a great sail until about 8PM when the wind dropped to about 4 knots, and we had to start motoring to maintain steerage. Prior to that we were cruising along at 8-10 knots in 15 knots of breeze as the equatorial current added about 2 knots to our speed. Sunday, Joey spotted a huge pod of about 50 dolphins about 300 yards off the port beam--couldn't get them to come any closer. But then, Rose broke her 9 year dry spell and spotted two huge humpbacks or right whales just off to starboard. A little while later, a screeching Rose called all hands on deck as we were about to run into another of these monsters. A quick move to neutral allowed the whale to pass about 200 feet in front of the boat. Rose's comment for today was she had no idea they were so big!!!! Anyway this AM (Mon.) we've started sailing again with about 9-10 knots and sunny skies. We're making 5.5-6 knots as we still have about 1 knot of favorable current. Seas are pretty calm with a 5-10 foot gentle swell from the south. Don't let anybody tell you it's hot at the equator. We've been freezing. I mean long pants, socks and jacket freezing at night. Somewhat better during the day when the sun is out, but today is the first sun we've had since Sat PM. We have officially quit smoking, because there are no smokes on board. At our current speed we'll take about 3 weeks for this passage and, hopefully, will be cured. Joey has sworn he did not smuggle any on board this time. Everyone's doing cold turkey. I mean, why not? We ain't got no smokes!!! So we ain't got no temptation.
Anyway, that's all for now. If you don't hear from us again, you'll know either A. we killed each other from trying to quit smoking or B. we ran into a whale and sunk. Will write more of the passage and the Marqueses when we arrive.
Tim, Rose & Joe
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